Port Botany container fee row boils over

Asciano’s stevedore group, Patrick, has accused the NSW government of introducing new regulation at Port Botany to cover up for a lack of improvements to the rail network that could speed up the movement of cargo from trucks to trains.

Months of simmering tension between the state government and the stevedore over the port’s operations boiled over at a meeting yesterday between NSW Treasurer
Eric Roozendaal
and Patrick executives.

Patrick described the meeting as a “set-up". Mr Roozendaal said Patrick representatives were “not particularly co-operative and quite aggressive".

Within two hours of the meeting ending Mr Roozendaal announced the state government would regulate rail pricing at Port Botany, which is controlled by Sydney Ports Corp, a company owned by the government.

The trigger was Patrick’s decision to increase the fee for containers bound for rail from $15 to $25. The government’s decision was welcomed by Independent Rail managing director Steve Heraghty.

The government is weeks away from introducing a new set of rules for road operations at the port that will penalise trucking companies and stevedores for delays. Yesterday’s decision extends the government’s regulatory reach to include rail operations.

Patrick Container Ports divisional general manager Paul Garaty said the government’s move set a dangerous precedent for all businesses in NSW. He said the stevedore would not be able to recover costs on its rail operations.

“We will not withdraw those services, we are committed to rail, but do you think we will deliver a first-class service if we cannot recover costs?"

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He noted the NSW price regulator, IPART had found rail charges did not appear to reflect the costs of providing a rail window. He also pointed out that only one in eight trains had arrived on time at Port Botany in recent months.

Patrick argues this performance is symptomatic of the inefficiencies in the system caused by the government’s lack of vision and execution.

Mr Roozendaal dismissed the link made by Patrick between rail network problems and the need to up its prices.

“This is not an issue of capacity. This is about Patrick’s behaviour," he told The Australian Financial Review.

He said the rest of the industry was working with Sydney Ports to address industry efficiency in a rail taskforce.

“Patrick has suddenly decided to step outside of that framework and increase its prices," he said.

He said the rail operators had indicated that if Patrick raised its prices as planned, those operators would have to go back to moving cargo by road.

“I am not going to stand by and allow thousands more trucks to be put back onto Sydney roads simply because Patrick has unilaterally decided to increase its prices by 67 per cent," he said.